grinning now. “Please yourself. I told you you have nothing to bargain with, and you
haven’t.”
I had intended to play with him. I was ready and willing to buy Ginny’s and my freedom
for half the money, but he wasn’t taking the lot. I’d worked too hard for that money to part
with all of it. There was only one way out of this. I had to catch him off his guard and kill
him.
“Give me five grand,” I said, making out I was frantic. “I’ve got to have a getaway stake.”
“Maybe,” he said, still grinning. “Where is it?”
I realized he’d shoot me the moment he got the money. Once again I was being jostled into
murder.
“I’d be a fool to tell you, wouldn’t I? As soon as you know what’s to stop you shooting
me?”
He tried to keep a straight face.
“My word.”
“What’s the use of that to me?”
He grinned then.
201
“Well, suggest something.”
I nodded to Ginny.
“She can get it and bring it here.”
“Suppose she doesn’t come back?”
“She will. She loves me. Do you think she wants me to get shot?”
All the time I was talking, Ginny had sat motionless, staring at me. Now when I turned to
her, she flinched away.
“Go on,” I said to her. “Get the money and hurry.” I reached forward and offered her the
key of my car. “The car’s around the back. It won’t take you long.”
She crouched in the chair, and the look she gave me sent a chill up my spine.
“Ginny! Please do what I say. This is the only way out for you. Get the money, and it’ll be
all right.” I tried to make her understand I was offering her escape.
“No,” she said. “I’m not having anything to do with it. You did steal that money, didn’t
you?”
“It belonged to me, Ginny,” I said desperately. “I can’t explain now…”
“Of course he stole it,” Hame cut in. “It’s money belonging to the casino.”
“Oh, Johnny, how could you?” she said, wringing her hands. “How could you get me into a
thing like this? You’ve bed to me all along. When you didn’t come to Miami as you
promised, I phoned the insurance people you talked about and they said you’d never worked
for them. Ever since we first met you’ve lied to me.” She pounded on the arm of the chair
with her fist. “I’m not going to be dragged into this! And don’t talk to me of love!”
I was sweating now.
“You’ve got to get that money! Don’t you understand he’ll shoot both of us if you don’t
go? Take this key and get out!”
“Oh no,” Hame said. “Not if that’s the way she feels about you. She stays here. We’ll start
from the beginning again.”
Around the half-open kitchen door I saw the white cat come in.
202
“Then let me go,” I said my muscles tightening. “She means everything to me. I’ll come
back. You can trust me to come back.”
“No woman’s worth a quarter of a million. We’ll all go.”
The cat brushed against his trouser leg. He hadn’t seen it come in, and feeling something
against his leg startled him. He looked down with an oath.
